Awesome Video Interview With N. D. Wilson

My favorite children's author has an interview that was posted up on youtube recently. Thought I'd share it. Again he brings some awesome words of wisdom on the craft:



Also, check out an interview he did about his other book called Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl, a compilation of thoughts and essays on God and His world. Also great reading:

First Peek At "THE KING'S GAME" - Page Process

So, I have been working on another pitch for a graphic novel that is under the working title of The King's Game. I thought it would be fun to share with you all the first completed page and show you how I did it. Let's start with the original image:

This was my first concept of what the page would look like. I had the idea of it being a small coliseum with a water pit and you wouldn't see any of the creatures in the water until later when our hero's ended up in it. The image was useful for the the intimacy of the event, but eventually I thought (and with other great input from friends and artists) it needed to be more epic feeling. I then got the idea of putting the whole thing out on an open ocean with a coliseum built on the edge of a rock face which lead to this:

These are my original pencils for the page. I do this all on 8.5 paper. It helps me see the scope of everything in a smaller way. I get lost on a larger format. I take these loose scribblings and scan them into the computer.

As you may have seen in an earlier post on my Bounty Hunter drawing, I then convert these lines to red line art in PS using a fill layer and set the layer to Screen. This will turn all of my lines into the shade of red I want. From there I print this out on two pieces of bristol card stock and tap the pages together so I can do the inks. I stick to this format for now because its what my printer handles with ease and I don't think it hurts the final product.

After I've inked the whole thing I scan it into PS and removed the red line art using the Hue/Saturation tool. Then I do some clean ups using a soft white airbrush set to color dodge nd the opacity turned down to 14. This lets me pick up small artifacts that remain after the red has been pulled out and holds up the darker intended lines.
The next step is to Flat the page. This is basically breaking down all of the shapes into layer groups for easy selection. I can then paint freely on one object without fear of it impacting the others around it.

Even more important than color in a painting is the values of the colors. These help things recede and push forward. You can use temperatures to do this as well, but value that works well can create just as stunning of an image as one with vibrant color. Even more so if the artist has no sense of values. So what I've done is started using a fill layer set to a middle gray tone and the layer set to color. I put this on top of everything and will constantly toggle back to it as a way of checking if things are separating like they should and if my focal point is working correctly. I caught a lot of stuff this way.

And finally:

I complete the painting. This thing kicked my butt. I pushed myself hard on this and I think the result is better than I imagined. Its got me excited for the rest of the scene coming up and with this image in place, I'm set to start painting the rest of the scene.

The Process Starts All Over Again

Well the whole process for The Unknowns is winding down to what appears to be a no go at this time for it getting picked up. That's put me back at square one with everything as far as preparing a comic for submission to publishers. I actually really enjoy this process. The Unknowns got really solid readback from a few big publishing houses and I don't hate them for not picking it up. They have to make a business decision and unfortunately they passed for now. For now. :-) The door is still open. Not all responses have been returned. You know who you are.

But if you want to get something published in a traditional manner I have learned two big things; patience and continued work. The down time between finishing up one project and pitching the next is not chillax time. It's the time you use to prepare the next thing.

So I sat down this week and started penciling up the preview sequence for the next project. My agent was really excited about this one when I first showed him an image of it. Which really got me pumped because I was already excited to get the ball rolling on it. I put together the roughs and started cracking. This project has felt like, as Kazu Kibuishi sometimes says, editing a movie. I have used the pencils from several pages and then went back and completely rearranged the layouts and angles from the shots. Forming either whole new pages or more dynamic shots. Photoshop has really made this process easier. It's weird looking at the first two penciled pages because I have done two "takes" on them and it feels like two totally different cuts of the same moments. Only heightened in the second versions. It's been the hardest I've ever worked on creating a sequence. Thanks to Josh Ulrich for some really good suggestions and keeping me honest. You're making it awesome with me! I'm happy to say, it's also shaping up to be one beast of a preview. Truly terrifying.

One of the things I have spent a lot of time thinking about lately has been the place that webcomics is going to have in my future moving forward. It seems a lot of people take one and leave the other. Meaning going through a standard publisher and/or striking it out on your own through webcomics.

I owe a lot to webcomics. My graphic novel From Death Til Now has given me the courage and confidence in my own abilities that I can create the stories I want. And the beauty of all of it is, that the web will ALWAYS allow for that. Meaning that while I am going after a publishing deal for several of my properties, I am not depending on them to be the life or death of my projects. The Unknowns may become a webcomic at some point. And I think it's just as viable a way to tell my stories or get them out of my head. My hesitation with a project like it and the web is that it's a series of novels and will take years to finish. Just like FDTN, so I don't need another one. But I guess my point is that a successful artist is not one who limits themselves or their opportunities. So with that in mind, I am looking to release a whole new graphic novel web property next year. It will be a one and done style book, so I can get in and get out. But I plan to make it something really special and fun. So we'll see what the new year holds!

And don't worry FDTN readers. It'll be around too. :-)

Bounty Hunter 2

I spent some time this weekend completely a second drawing of my bounty hunter character. I actually begun it awhile back but things got busy and it took some time. I'm pretty happy with how it call came out. I figuring this digital coloring thing out.

Collison

N D Wilson is a writer I have discussed earlier. Well, his father is a pretty prominent person in the Christian world. He and his father edit magazine called the Credenda Agenda. His father also went on a tour of debates with Atheist Christopher Hitchens. They've made a movie about it. Looks pretty intriguing:



Sorry for no big art updates at this time. I've been busy with a lot, but unable to say much for now. Still getting my feet under me. Stay tuned for those updates as they come.

Amulet 3 Update and Video

Days and nights have been filled lately with production assists on Amulet 3. Denver Jackson, Stuart Livingston and myself have been laying down what are called the "flats" for each page. A process you can find out more about here.

The task has been hugley rewarding and fun to get get to know the rest of the crew, which at this time is the "flats crew," Jason Caffoe, Anthony Go Wu and our leader Kazu Kibuishi. I stumbled across this video and thought it was pretty cool for those who like Amulet and for those who would like an intro to the project. This appears to have been made back in the production of book 1. Enjoy!

What To Do While You Wait...

It's been a couple of months of waiting on news regarding The Unknowns. We had some interest from a large publishing house, but we're still holding on to any news from them as well. My agent and others tell me no news is good news at this point. I've also read that this isn't uncommon and so therefore, I should chillax. So, I haven't lost much hope for it. The most difficult thing is the waiting. You spend so much time and energy getting something togther, you're super pumped when it leaves your hands and then you wait.... and wait... and wait. I feel bad for my agent. Not only does he need to sell my material, he has to deal with my impatient, sometimes insecure self. He's always been very kind.

I decided to email him recently to ask what he thought I should be busy working on right now, while we wait. He suggested that I start working on the next idea. Because while we still hold a lot of hope out for The Unknowns, having the next thing ready to go can keep us moving. I've already prepared a packet on my Kevin story to pitch the bigger idea to publishers. I actually am really excited about this idea. I think it's going to be really fun and unique.

I then came up with another idea that I've posted a concept piece from here on the blog already. I can't give much away about it here, but after showing it to my agent and others, the feedback has been really strong. So I've been developing a proposal piece for this and that ought to keep me quite busy while we're waitng for final words. No worries though, it's still too early.

Beyond that, I've found that the best rememdy for idleness is just keeping at things. I recently had to set up a priority list of projects so that I could get some things done. It can be hard to be patient, but when you keep the work in front of you, you stay focused and purposeful with your time.

At least that's what I tell myself... before I click refresh on my email box.